The Untold Podcast

Episode 13 | We Quit Our Jobs… Here’s What Happened Next....

The Untold Family Season 1 Episode 13

No filters. No scripts. Just Des and Chris, reflecting on what it really feels like to walk away from the 9-5.

In this episode, Ash is away — so Des and Chris take the mic for a stripped-back chat about quitting their jobs, going full-time on TikTok, and learning how to build a new life from scratch.

They talk honestly about:

  • The fear and freedom of leaving your steady job
  • How relationships change when you're more present at home
  • Why consistency beats talent
  • The difference between your dream job and your safe job
  • Dealing with self-doubt, money worries, and finding your ‘reason why’

There’s banter, honesty, and a lot of insight into the risks and rewards of taking control of your time.

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Speaker 1:

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Speaker 2:

Welcome to the Untold Podcast. With me I'm Des, this is Chris, Good morning or evening afternoon. And this is Ash. No, he's not here. Hello, Ash isn't here. Ash is seeing his parents in Spain.

Speaker 3:

So this week you've just got me and Chris maybe it's Ash that brings the sun to the podcast studio, because every time we come here it's sunny. Yeah, that's true it's raining today.

Speaker 2:

It might be me. Ash, come back. I've dressed for the sun. I haven't even got socks on.

Speaker 3:

You have got a coat on though this is more just token for the outfit okay, I'm about to come without a t-shirt on, just to watch, so I don't get too hot.

Speaker 2:

This stays in the car. I put it on as I'm walking in and I take it off as I'm walking out. I don't know what that smell was.

Speaker 3:

That's me.

Speaker 2:

This is what happens when Ash isn't here Right, talk me through your Bank holiday weekend, mate. What have you been up to this week?

Speaker 3:

well, nothing really. I've just sat on the sofa all weekend just watching TV fair enough.

Speaker 4:

What about you? Yeah, same yeah that's the show.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, bye everybody. Thanks for that. No, I've had a really good weekend, mate. To be fair, started on, started on Friday, went up to the Belfry, played the PGA Tour on a Friday, put PGA course on the Friday and then played the Ryder Cup Tour on a Saturday. Then I went to obviously, watch Crystal Palace lift the cup at the parade yesterday, which was very, very good. Didn't have much beer yesterday, I was quite disappointed, not through choice though.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, well, kind of not through choice, because I was with my son who didn't want to drink. The youth man, the youth aren't into the beer like me. Oh yeah, they don't love the party anymore, do they?

Speaker 2:

I kind of feel sorry for them, but I'm also a little bit jealous.

Speaker 3:

Yeah well, I wasn't jealous yesterday. Tuesday I was back at about half past seven, eight o'clock last night.

Speaker 2:

I was ready to do this podcast on my own.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, Well, I did tell you last week didn't I, you did. You did, yeah, so maybe it wasn't actually as good a weekend as I thought it was. To be fair.

Speaker 2:

How about you? We had. My dad was 75 and my niece was 21. They both had the same birthday.

Speaker 4:

Wow.

Speaker 2:

So for 21 years my dad's birthday hasn't existed. That's a variety of a party if I've ever heard one. Oh no, yeah, oh no, but again, well, no, actually, because she does love a drink Eves. So, no, it was nice. So we just went up the pub on Sunday afternoon, all the kids, a few hours. But other than that saturday we just sort of potted about mate, it's all go.

Speaker 4:

This road show coming on friday good road show. I've got a road show. Well, it's too late now. This will be going out afterwards. So you had a road show on the road show yeah, but, mate, it's mental, it's mental.

Speaker 2:

I've got to write this whole thing we've got. I think this will be the last one that I do on my own yeah, I mean organize it on my own because we got five panels. We've got an amazon group and of course I've been having conversations with them about how their panel will go and how much involved they want, involvement they want to have and figuring out like any gifts they want to give away. We've got the tiktok one and of course, mate, we're split between kind of two agencies, aren't we?

Speaker 2:

yeah so I want to make sure everyone gets their spotlight, but at the same point, we want to introduce new things to it and at the same point, me and Luke want to talk about affiliation. Yeah, then we got the side hustle, which is Lisa. Now I can talk about this now, because it's it's gone, but Lisa and Amy are going to announce their collaboration for the first time at the thing. They're launching it, but Amy only flies back from holiday on the Friday. So I'm going to have an iPad maybe, and if Amy's able to make it, she can come on the iPad and they can announce this thing together. Nice, and I was going to do it as a running theme for oh, is Amy coming? Is Amy coming? I don't think we're going to be doing that?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, it's a lot to think about in one day, isn't it?

Speaker 2:

That's it. Then we got the podcast and of course it was going to be the Untold podcast, but then things happened and now it's going to be.

Speaker 3:

Luke's podcast. I'll basically let everybody down.

Speaker 2:

Yeah Well actually I'll say my baby's here, let everybody down, yeah for Luke's, but I've got to make sure Luke gets the spotlight and it's all to that. And then I've got to memorise two speeches, an opening and a closing. And then I've got to think about the event itself, the social, the getting up there Thursday, the goodie bags that we want to give away. Ron's coming on to do a live masterclass. I want to make sure that he gets the credit he deserves for that. Do not age, you've just messaged me, me, we want to come and we'll bring some goodie bags. Got the sponsors coming up, mate, it's just, it's mental. So this weekend was me and chat GPT laying it all out.

Speaker 3:

Alright, ash, I know so I had a fun weekend and you just had a really busy one then yeah, that's it, that's my life.

Speaker 2:

And so, mate, I've run these two road shows fairly quickly, back to back, three months apart. I'm going to have a break.

Speaker 4:

Yeah.

Speaker 3:

I'm going to break. What did you get one of those holidays? Reply back for one of them. Holiday things did you.

Speaker 2:

No, I never had a break. I can't believe they didn't Gutted. That's my loving offer. I had one company ring me back.

Speaker 3:

Des, I just I'll pay, I'll pay, yeah.

Speaker 2:

How much? 50p? Yeah, I don't mind paying for my travel. When do? You want your holiday Right in the middle of August, but no money please.

Speaker 3:

Lots of charts, mate. Thank you, Lots of charts.

Speaker 2:

But I think what would be good, mate, why don't we talk about how leaving your job has gone for you? Yeah, I'm happy to do that?

Speaker 3:

yeah, because I'm happy. Yeah, exactly right, yeah, right, yeah, I mean, I can't even really begin to put it into words what it's actually done, right, it is difficult to explain. It's really difficult to explain. I was, you know, I was really nervous about doing it. I've been wanting to do it for months and months and months and then I had the opportunity to be able to do it and I thought fuck it, I'm going to just give it a go. What have I got to lose? Someone said to me I can't remember it was, it might've even been you. You've the job. Go and do it full time, see if it works. If it doesn't work, then you've not missed out on the opportunity yeah, wouldn't have been me. And you can go back and get the tools back out of the garage and start all over again, because you've got that trait. And I can't remember where it was, but someone said it to me and it literally.

Speaker 3:

I would have told you to burn the tools and throw them off a cliff there it's going to all go to yeah, um, somebody put it into that, those terms for me, and I thought to myself do you know what?

Speaker 3:

they've got a point I'm not getting any younger, I'm only getting older every day. And I've got a three-year-old son that is doing exactly what I'm doing. He's getting older every day and I'm going to miss out on the opportunities I'm going to miss with him otherwise. And what is it? This is my fourth week now, or Maybe this might even be my fifth week actually. I mean, that's how bad it is. I can't even remember when I give up. How quick has that gone? Yeah, and to be honest, I haven't even really gone really into depth of what I should be doing by now, but it's been amazing, mate. I mean, obviously, fa Cup winners in that month has been amazing, but it's really just been what it's given me.

Speaker 3:

With my family, mate, I feel like I've got a relationship, close relationship, with my missus again, because obviously I was just doing lives in the evenings and never spending any time with her and stuff like that and working all day. I feel like the relationship with my son is just phenomenal. You know like I get to see him every morning. I go live till eight o'clock in the morning. I was live till eight o'clock in the morning. I was live till eight o'clock.

Speaker 3:

This morning I came in the house and he's in the lounge and, first thing he done, sprinted across the room, gave me a massive cuddle and a kiss and I don't get to do. I never got to do that in the daytime when I was at work. You know, full time I am very lucky about I mean, don't get me wrong, there is days where I do worry. I went live the other day and had four people in the live for nearly 15 minutes and that, let me tell you something, that puts the willies up you when you've quit your job. I must have been going live at the same time.

Speaker 2:

Probably what it was. Yeah, Everyone was watching me.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, it was, I'm not going to lie. I was petrified, I bet, but it's just been amazing and you know I don't talk about money a lot, but even just going full time and doing it, it's just almost like it's given me this new found not want, but it's the need to earn on TikTok now.

Speaker 4:

That's it.

Speaker 3:

You know it was a side hustle before. Now it is my job. It's your job. I don't have the choice of oh God, my alarm's going off at half five in the morning. I'm not getting up, I'm going back to sleep. I don't have that option anymore because I haven't got the income coming in every month. So my alarm went off this morning. I went it at 20 to 6 last night instead of half 5. And well, I usually get up at half 5.

Speaker 1:

Oh right, so you did 10 minutes didn't you?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I looked at it and I thought, oh, I can't be arsed this morning. Maybe I'll just go on at like quarter to 7 or 10 to 7 or something, just for an hour. I thought, no, what are you doing? You can't do that. You get to spend the whole day doing whatever you want. If you get up if you get up now, go live to your weight you can spend the whole day doing whatever you want, and then you've got to do your live again this evening. So I jumped downstairs, went to the toilet, brushed my teeth done my hair, made me look pretty and then jumped out into the studio and there I was done my work for the day.

Speaker 3:

Hey, very good all right. Yeah, it was good. Yeah, not too bad mate. Yeah, mustn't grumble, it's almost. It's almost like the someone's flicked a switch TikTok have gone right. Actually, this guy is in his business now. Let's make his lives a little bit better.

Speaker 2:

That's exactly what happens when you're consistent and you've got a time slot that other people ain't doing. That's what happens. Well, the thing is.

Speaker 3:

I have been very consistent as well. I do it. The only times I ever don't is if I'm away and I can't actually physically do it. Yeah of course, but it is. I mean we tell everyone, don't we? You've got to be consistent. Most people, I think, just get pissed off for that word. I know when I first started out on TikTok it used to drive me out the wall. Be consistent be consistent.

Speaker 3:

Well, I'm being sick of people telling me to be consistent and blah, blah blah and post this, this, these two or three videos every single day for blah, blah blah. And well, it's not working, but it does, it does. One day it will get picked up.

Speaker 3:

I hope it does for everybody but you do see most people eventually look at like I mean I won't talk about it too much because the original group that we started working with six months down the line, a lot of those are now making money because they were consistent. But yeah, I mean in a in a in a long about short way. It's been brilliant, mate.

Speaker 2:

That's it. We're finding it with our cohort. Now it's six, it seems to be six, seven months. We did this on the webinar last week, the TikTok sponsored webinar.

Speaker 3:

Thank you. Last week, the tiktok sponsored webinar. Thank you very much. We, uh, I've done that, thank you. Thank you, I was gonna listen, but I was playing golf, so I didn't that sound like you're being very consistent does it, but we?

Speaker 2:

that was the message. That that was exactly the message. You're gonna get pissed off of the fact that you need to be consistent, but you've got to stay in the room because if you stay in the room, you can't lose. You can't. Nobody can break the person that keeps showing up. It's impossible. But, mate, no, I'm absolutely buzzing for you.

Speaker 2:

But I think it is important to go back through that little roller coaster of emotions because he, you and I, we've both quit our jobs in the last year and you and I, we both had the statistics to show that we could do it. Yeah, but we were both hesitant to do it. Yeah, I think that's really important and I think it was taken out of my control. A lot of what happened with me when I can talk about it another day but in my head I was going to go right, if I earn that much, I'll go down to four days a week, then I'll go down to three days a week, then I'll go down to two days a week. I think, in hindsight, that was never going to work. Yeah, in hindsight, there was always going to be a breaking point where I was just going to go. You know what no done.

Speaker 3:

Well, that's exactly what we used to do. I mean, I've always noted the group chat, didn't I? Before saying I'm going to cut down to three days instead of five, and then I ended up working five days a week for about another six weeks and it just never, never happens're still doing that. So come and do this as well. It's just impossible, isn't it Exactly?

Speaker 2:

There was a bloke who was an Amazon seller. He literally sat me down with a whiteboard. It was a new whiteboard so he was showing it off. But he had this whiteboard and he was saying to me look what you've earned in the last 12 months and you've done it on three hours a day. Now throw seven hours a day at it more in this year than you have ever earned in your life. Yeah, and then I saw a post from Jack and I'd only met Jack at one time at this point, or had I even met, I'd had a phone call with him at one point. I saw a post from him saying if you've got a three-month notice period, throw your, put your notice in and then see what you can do in three months. Now I wouldn't recommend that to anybody.

Speaker 2:

I was in a lucky position where I'd been building up for two years. You know what I mean. But even then I was terrified. And when, especially PAYE boy, my pay slip was taken for granted, you know, I could have a pony month at work, literally just cover the bases, and I'd get the same amount of money as if I worked really hard.

Speaker 2:

And when that last pay slip hit and Claire said to me right, can we cover the bills and we've got to think about the remortgage in about six months' time. I'm like shit, all right, and then you kind of get to work. But ironically around about that point is when we started shifting from Amazon to TikTok, so things kind of dipped and went through. We're kind of just coming out the other end now, but I think you hit the nail on the head, mate. The relationship I've got with my kids now is unbelievable, especially my third-born, tommy. So we're going up to Claire's folks on Wednesday and then she and I we're driving up to Manchester on Thursday and we're going Thursday night, friday night, away. The last time we spent any time away from Tommy was our honeymoon in January 2022.

Speaker 1:

Nearly three years.

Speaker 2:

And even last night. I don't want you to go because he's never known, he can't remember a time. Yeah, what a lovely problem to have, right.

Speaker 4:

Isn't it?

Speaker 2:

Bearing in mind he's older brother and sister, I only see him seven days out of 14.

Speaker 3:

Yeah it's a nice thing, but yeah, it is, it's one. It's you kind of like. I know you'll remember this, but when we do the zoom calls and stuff, like back in october when we first started, I've always had my reason why, always. That's why I've always always said that he's my reason why. Yeah, the only reason that I've carried on going through all of the rough times and tiktok and all the shit and the broken pages and stuff is because I knew that I could give him a better life. That's been it. And I said to my missus this morning like she's obviously just running a TikTok shop, she's trying to do videos and stuff. She said she's not got enough time and everything and she doesn't know how she can find that time. And I just said to her I said watch this Reason why. And I called him and he went huh, because he didn't know that's, that's what he's called. And I said come here and he come like shuffling in like a dog, because the dog's in the hallway.

Speaker 3:

He's pretending to be the dog and I said, look, there's my reason why. That's how I find time. You know, she was like, oh, yeah, but you always used to moan. I was like, yeah, but I always used to moan, but I still did it. I still found the time to do it because I wanted to do it for him. So I said now that is your reason why. So you need to find that and it is important to find that. But when your kids do see, he knows now that I'm doing it for him.

Speaker 3:

I've made it obvious, I've made it very clear that he's at home and I've given my job up to work at home so that I can be there for him. It just gives you this sense of fulfillment in yourself much more. Don't get me wrong, I did used to like my job for the banter and side of things, but I used to go to work and every minute I was there I didn't want to be there. I said a minute ago I was playing golf. Friday, saturday, I was in Birmingham playing golf. I was away from my family. Yesterday I was at the celebration for the FA Cup, my crystal palace in the FA Cup, oh sorry.

Speaker 4:

Celebratory For the FA Cup.

Speaker 3:

Crystal Palace win the FA Cup. You know my wife. I think that everybody that sees me, that speaks to me, probably says he spends a lot of time Away from home. I don't like being away From home that Friday. I could have quite easily Played golf on the Friday Lunchtime, come home Friday evening and just not play golf On the Saturday. And unless Crystal Palace Did win the FA Cups because they won the FA Cup last.

Speaker 3:

Saturday, last Saturday, I wouldn't have been away on that day, you know so, and I I don't. I actually do miss my family and I and I never really did when I was at work, I just wanted to be at home. But because I've got that relationship, I build that relationship because when you have kids, you kind of lose, become mum and dad.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, you don't get your lunch. You're caregivers don't you?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, that's it Sitting after dinner together and then you go to bed and you go and repeat the whole day.

Speaker 2:

Especially now. Mate, my oldest is 11. So by the time she goes to bed, we're ready to go to bed as well.

Speaker 3:

Yeah yeah, but yeah, it is brilliant. It is brilliant If anyone's thinking about it, if anyone's genuinely thinking about giving up their job. If you can, I've had a few DMS recently because obviously I've done a post the day that I finished work. From from work, I've had quite a few DMS from people saying what did you say?

Speaker 3:

See you later you mugs. I was on my own. Actually, that's on my own. I did say that in my head. Obviously I drive, I drive past the office going, but no, I've had quite a few dms of people saying oh, is it easy to quit your job? How did you know when you should quit it? Quit your job when you know you can earn enough money to to cover what you're earning now. That's the only time, like loads of people said to me just quit your job, man, you're making this much money, quit your job, just quit it. Blah, blah, blah. It's easy for people to sit on the outside and say quit your job, yes, when they don't know what is going on behind your, the scenes of your house or in your own head or whatever. Like we've all got our own feelings, we've all got our own issues and that's that's really important.

Speaker 2:

But I think it's also vital to say in your situation yes, because business wise, there's no overheads for you. No, if you run a cash flow style business, you've got to say right, yeah, can you make enough money to replace your wage and can you afford to take that out of your cash? Flow as well.

Speaker 3:

Tiktok shop's perfect mate, honestly it is the, it is. This is the thing, right. So I'm earning really good money, right, really good money I haven't got. I mean, the most money I spend is driving to this podcast every week.

Speaker 4:

That is my outgoings.

Speaker 3:

I have to put diesel in my van. I've still got the van. I'm looking to get rid of it. If anyone wants to buy a transit van, ring me up. I don't have to do anything. I don't need business insurance, I don't need tools, I don't need van insurance. I don't need to pay wages anymore. I don't need to buy, replace things that go wrong every week. You know, if one of my sandals or something broke, it's like 800 pound, yeah, so I'd have to go straight to the decorators merchants, get another one in because we need it on the job, and it happens all the time. You know, if one of the sprayers breaks down, it's it's a reoccurring cost to get fixed. Um, I didn't realize how much I don't have to pay out. It's crazy, isn't it? Honestly, it's mental. I reckon my outgoings, probably for insurances and fuel and everything, were probably best part of £1,000 a month. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3:

That's amazing and I haven't got that at all anymore. All I've got to do is just add on to the electricity bill a little bit.

Speaker 2:

That's it, which now you can reclaim partially back on VAT. Yeah, partially back on VAT. Yeah, it's crazy, it is crazy. The TikTok side hustle is the best one.

Speaker 3:

Everyone says to me oh so what do you do? Do you have to, like, buy all the products and you've got like a load of stock and everything Must be a right pain packing it all up? No, mate, just put a link at the bottom of the video, yeah. Or like, just put a link in the live and all people do is click on it and you get a percentage of commission.

Speaker 2:

Man, you'd be amazed. We're onboarding brands at the moment that aren't on TikTok shop and they don't understand that. Like okay, what do you want with these samples, Do we?

Speaker 4:

send them all to your house?

Speaker 2:

No, it's fine, Don't worry about it, Just get fulfilled the normal way. Yeah, it's incredible, but even as an agency, there still aren't many overheads the way that we're doing it. I mean, if you've got an office and staff and stuff like that, yeah, of course.

Speaker 2:

But I mean we're using VAs and me and Luke are doing most of the work, I mean, or they haven't, but yeah it is nuts mate, but the freedom it takes some getting used to and I think that's really important. I think the main thing and I say this because luke called himself quick you're nine to five for years and years, but luke will be the first to tell you he didn't really have a what you'd call traditional job very long. He worked in sales, he worked at the football club, he worked and then he thought he got his amazon business sort of thing and his dad was an entrepreneur. So luke sort of was he a mascot?

Speaker 4:

at the football club.

Speaker 3:

Sorry he won't listen to this.

Speaker 2:

And I said to him I went, look, when you've got the kids and the mortgage and stuff like that, quitting your job especially me, mate, public sector, I was old Bill. You don't get sacked from the old Bill unless you were an absolute wrong and it's the safest job in the world. So even leaving the old Bill to the civil service, mate, that was a risk. I'd be like, oh, what happens if there's redundancies? Come on, it's fine. But then quitting you don't just especially in the PAYE, you don't just lose your salary, you lose your sick pay. Of course, mate, you never had sick pay, did you Nothing so you lose your annual leave.

Speaker 2:

Your pension's always taken care of. If something ever happened to me, claire would get a lump sum. That's gone. Critical illness cover, life insurance Sometimes people have private health All of that stuff down the toilet gone completely. National insurance is taken care of.

Speaker 3:

It's all these things just meant to keep you safe. You know what I mean. But at the same time, they keep you safe, but are they actually letting you break away and do something better for yourself?

Speaker 2:

Exactly? No, they're not. It's in their interest to keep you safe.

Speaker 3:

Of course it is, yeah.

Speaker 2:

And just keep you enough, just enough. But now I've gone exactly that that people seem when I talk about the school run. I never moan about the school run, even though my school run is long, I have to leave it's proper long.

Speaker 2:

I leave about quarter past two. I don't get back to about half past four and I don't moan about it because I know how lucky I am to do the school run. I know there's been times where I've had to get someone to cover me so I can go pick up the kids, or my mum and dad would have to do it and they're like, no, I'll do it. I'll do it, it's fine, it's just, I'll stop work at 2. I'll start work again at 5 o'clock. How lovely is that man today, today's such a big day because it's the day after a bank holiday, monday yeah, and we're both here now.

Speaker 3:

We're both sitting here working.

Speaker 2:

We should be, but it is one of those, but I don't know about you, but I just kind of fell into work. It was just something that I knew I had to do growing up get some education, go work. Never really thought about what is it you want to do yeah, to be the people that know me very well.

Speaker 3:

They kind of know that I've found my thing. They knew it before I'd even found it myself I must have had. I reckon if I counted up on my hands, I'd run out of fingers for jobs by probably about the number 10. I reckon I've probably had 20 different careers in the last 20 years. 25 years I've been a barman, I've done wood shavings, spreading for chicken farms, I've worked in hotels, I've worked at Sainsbury's, I've worked as a decorator, a tiler, a carpenter Just loads and loads of different jobs, just because I never could be asked to do anything about doing something I wanted to do.

Speaker 4:

Yeah.

Speaker 3:

Got into the trades because I'm a bloke and I thought, well, if I don't know what I'm going to do, I might as well learn a trade, and then kind of just went through it. I tried to be a plumber once as well, and that was too boring, so I gave that up. But always, when I was at school, I wanted to be on TV. That's what I wanted to be. I wanted to be a television presenter yeah, kids presenter. Actually, when I was like in my teens, I mean looking at kids presenters. Now there is no fucking way I would be a kids presenter Like Ralph.

Speaker 4:

No, I'm not back in those days, I'm talking about the ones nowadays?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, not like Ralph Harris or Jimmy.

Speaker 1:

Tava or anything like that.

Speaker 3:

But no, I look at them now and I think I I could never have done that. I was a bit of a funny character when I was young, but I could never be all that hyped up person. But now I've kind of got onto TikTok and sometimes I'm on the live, like the other night I had a really funny live. We've got these flash sales that we're doing at the moment and there was a lady in there called Joanne. She was trying to get something at this flash sale price. So I managed to get her three deals at this price and she missed out. But three other people got them and I was laughing my head off and everyone was going oh no, joanne, in the comments and it became this little bit of a thing. So I said right, joanne, I've got access to another load. I'll set another deal up for you, but you make sure you get this one. And I put the three on going. Come on, john, you can do it, you can do it, you can do it. Guess what? She missed out again.

Speaker 3:

But I caught myself in the camera with a massive smile on my face and I realized to myself actually I'm kind of doing what I wanted to do when I was a kid, because, although I'm not on TV, I am, on the modern day, equivalent to a TV, aren't I? Because people watch their phones more than they watch their TVs. So I am a presenter on TikTok I suppose you could call it, because it's presenting the brand, or whatever. But I feel like I have kind of found what I was looking for for all those years. It's really weird. I spoke about it with Polly, one of the ladies on our community that always wanted to be on TV, and she was like you've done it. You know, you're kind of on TV now and it is. It's like I've almost fulfilled a dream of mine without even meaning to fulfill it. Yeah, don't get me wrong. If there's anybody watching or listening that is on a TV programme or like part of any broadcasting channel, dm me.

Speaker 2:

Chris wants to do kids TV.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, yeah no, yeah, no, not kids TV something like Top Gear, if it ever comes out again.

Speaker 3:

I'll have the. I'll have the insurance payout, but yeah, honestly it's. I always thought you looked like Mr Tumble. It's a mad one. Yeah, don't, sorry, don't you're a shining star can't believe.

Speaker 2:

I just did that mate, that was a lot worse.

Speaker 3:

You could have done but yeah, honestly it's weird. It's really strange, like life has just completely flipped upside down and I'm a much nicer person yeah, much nicer person to be around.

Speaker 2:

I love that you say that that's you're right throughout school. I got sent to stage school for a couple of years when I was a kid Much nicer person to be around. I love that you say that. That's that's you're right Throughout school. I got sent to stage school for a couple of years when I was a kid. I was always the one who was in the school play.

Speaker 3:

I was always the one that would sing at the school thing.

Speaker 2:

You was Billy Elliot, weren't you? I was Billy Elliot, was you actually? Yeah, yeah, only gayer and I, even up until like 20s, I used to sing. I used to sing at like cabaret shows. I used to sing at drag shows.

Speaker 3:

Well, come on, they're not just done at Mr Tumble. Impressions.

Speaker 2:

No, it's better than that. I was the token straight actor at a drag show. I had an agent and all sorts. If you had told me that so I would have been 20, 21 years old then. If you then said in 10 years time that geezer's going to be a civil servant yeah.

Speaker 3:

Working in financial institutions yeah piss off, gone from having fun to being bored out your life every day.

Speaker 2:

That's it, yeah that was some sense of duty. For some reason I just to fall in line, yeah, and I gave all that up and all I would do was just do karaoke when I was steaming with my mates from the football club was that can I just ask?

Speaker 3:

I'll just bump in there. Have you got? Did you go from that to that because of the noise around you? Was it because people?

Speaker 2:

were saying that you should get a proper job. Not really. It's an interesting point. My family were all very traditional, Even though it was my family that sent me to stage school. Even when I'm doing now, they're like I don't know how you did that, I'm like you're joking.

Speaker 2:

You sent me to stage school. You're surprised that I'm flamboyant here. What's going on here? So I went to university. Because I felt like I should go to university and to do that, I ended up working at Amex, because university fees had kicked in by the time I went. And then I went to work for Virgin on the airlines, which was the best of both worlds, you know. I mean, I could mince up and down the plane.

Speaker 3:

I mean, you have gone from one extreme to the other, haven't you?

Speaker 2:

It's nuts, isn't it?

Speaker 3:

The career path you started at to where you are now is just so polar opposite.

Speaker 2:

It's gone, isn't it? So yeah, there would be me camping it up on the planes, loved that job, loved that job, but I'm being told back home at that point that's not a career. Yeah, you're away too much. I was missing all of the social events. I was 23, 24, missing everything that was going on. That's prime party years, isn't it? And I wasn't there because I was in the caribbean having a terrible time. You know what I mean. So, um, after two years, I pissed everything down the toilet. I'd already come out of university with a load of debt and then I found myself in a job where you're on the other side of the world with a bunch of young people going out every night. I was in so much debt. After a couple of years. That's when I went all right, I'll join the police. That was the flip mate 180 from cabin crew to police. And then I was in serious jobs and it took me all this time.

Speaker 2:

And I would see these people mate when Logan Paul, amanda Cerny King Bach. I would see people mate when Logan Paul, amanda Cerny King Batch. I would see PewDiePie. These were like the YouTubers that started making it big, and I'm seeing their money and I'm thinking I'm all right at this, I know I'm all right at this. And then I see people that were pony making it through. You've seen some of Mr Beast's early videos oh my God.

Speaker 2:

And I'm thinking I could have a go at this. Why am I doing this? And I started dabbling in it here, there and everywhere. I never found really a passion. It was kind of a weight loss thing, because a lot of them were making money sort of playing FIFA, and I thought those days are gone. No one's going to want to watch me front. But yeah, then I came into this doing the 200,000 pound challenge because I had to do it. You know what I mean. I was passionate about that because it was my bloody life and yeah it just all of a sudden it's flipped. You're right, I am now. If you looked at me, we're 20 years old and you say that geezer would be doing TikToks. Helping people do TikToks, that would make sense.

Speaker 4:

Yeah.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, it's mad and it how things change. I mean life changes so much. I mean my sister in our Katie she. What are you doing, man? Like you're 40 years old, sort your life out. And my missus as well. She's like through COVID. I can remember sitting outside the front with the neighbours because you used to be able to sit in your front garden getting pissed in. Every day my missus used to be over the other side of the road on the curb by the woods with my neighbour's little girl and they'd be doing little dancing to TikTok videos. And I'm thinking, fucking hell, this is someone, pass me another beer. And I used to just abuse everyone for being on TikTok. Like, just get off of there, stop wasting your time. And then all of a sudden I'm on TikTok all the time.

Speaker 4:

Yeah.

Speaker 3:

You know I walked upstairs the other day and they went oh, all I see is you on the FIP now all the time on there, like even my mates say I can't believe you stuck with it, chris Stewart, stuck with TikTok. Are you going to be doing that every day? And you've even made it your full-time job.

Speaker 2:

Mate, you're on it a lot. You're on my FYP more than ever Am.

Speaker 3:

I yeah.

Speaker 2:

It's good mate, you can tell.

Speaker 3:

You've gone proper to town on the FYP, I'll be on it even more soon, but it's inspiring man.

Speaker 2:

Me and Luke had a conversation yesterday and said look, we need to be posting more. I saw Cam Eastie. He's now just doing 20-second posts on a brand-new account, built it up to 6,000 followers and he's not talking about anything. But he's engaging and he's good. You know what I mean. I'm thinking I'm engaging.

Speaker 1:

I'm good.

Speaker 2:

I should be just talking nonsense about my car and stuff.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, yeah. Well, this is the thing. This is what people get lost in, don't they? They think you just have to do one thing on TikTok. Tiktok goes out to millions of people.

Speaker 4:

Yeah.

Speaker 3:

Not everyone's interested in the one thing you might be talking about now. It's like the podcasts. We've got podcasts that do better than others. That's because people are interested in more in other ones than they are others, you know. I mean you can't do normal videos On normal videos. You can do shot videos and anything.

Speaker 2:

You're right, let's do a social experiment. I'm going to do a TikTok right now, me and you while we're recording. Hello everyone. Me and Chris are here Morning. This is the Untold Podcast. Give us a follow, will you? Cheers, That'll be a TikTok.

Speaker 3:

Bit short. You could have gone for a couple more words there, like we're recording or something. We're talking about our day. All right, no, I'm joking, just keep it as it is.

Speaker 2:

We're going again. Hello everyone, Hang on. Blocked the microphone. I've got a new phone, by the way. Hello everyone, it's Chris Morning. Everybody, we're in the studio. We're recording a podcast. We are next Tuesday. No, I won't see you then. And you see me and him making this TikTok, talking about making a TikTok, even though I can't say the word TikTok. This post is pony. This ain't going out. We'll just forget about that. Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 3:

That's why. That's why you I always say you should always watch your TikToks at least five or six times before you post them. It's a little training episode there, that's it.

Speaker 2:

Well, that's social experiment.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, exactly, yeah. I've just probably lost every follower I've ever had on my TikTok as well now I'm going to go home and write a CV.

Speaker 2:

I think I better get my job back.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, get that police officer job back. Probably not allowed, though now you've been on. Tiktok, mate, they hate me. Yeah, yeah, they hate me.

Speaker 2:

Although I saw someone the other day my boy, it turns out. My boy goes to school with someone that I used to work with, and she saw me. She went you're coming up in the world now, aren't you? I went, am I? She went yeah, which is lovely that. That's how my old work now seems. Yeah, yeah, it's good, isn't it?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, it is like when I first started doing it, everyone used to take the piss out of me, and then the noise started slowly dying away a little bit and then the piss taking started going, you're actually making money doing that? Then yeah, yeah, yeah, that's right. Yeah, how much are you making?

Speaker 3:

well, I'm not telling you how much I'm making, but you've asked me if I'm making money and I've said yes oh, alright, then well you're obviously not making enough because, well, I've got a plan mate, I'm going to try and get some savings in the bank so that I can quit my job, but didn't tell them that. And then, when I told the lad that worked for me that I was going to go full time, he was like I'm surprised you're waiting this long to be fair, because why wouldn't you so? It was quite nice that other people could see that it was obviously they, rather than what I thought about myself, because it's taken a lot longer for me to think I'm doing well for myself than it has other people.

Speaker 2:

And that's it, mate. We speak so horribly about ourselves to ourselves If we thought how other people. Polly's a perfect example. I wish Polly could listen to the advice that Polly gives other people 100%. Yeah.

Speaker 3:

Because she's amazing.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 3:

Honestly, on the Friday night club the other night, when we were talking about her and her daughter, I was like, oh God, like she came on my live and I gave her a shout-out. She was like, oh my God, he knows you. Like he gave you a shout-out, mum. Like what's all that about? Well, it's because she's a bloody amazing woman.

Speaker 2:

God, he's a legend.

Speaker 3:

She helps so many other people out. You phenomenal and I mean it was we had a chat, didn't we? We went, we had a coffee about a month or two ago and we both walked away from that chat feeling different, yeah, totally different yeah, I liked you before that um, I've come away from that feeling so much more confident about myself.

Speaker 3:

I was going to say the same thing before. You said it to be fair, but he beat me to it. Um, but it is. It does take time. You know, like we sitting out like confident time. You know, like we sitting out like confident I'm, you know I come across very confident. Now I know that I can. I can tell that, by the way, I'm just talking now.

Speaker 4:

Yeah.

Speaker 3:

Compared to the first podcast we done I don't shut up now the first one I didn't even talk.

Speaker 4:

Yeah.

Speaker 3:

You know, but it does take a long. On TikTok for over 18 months. It probably took me 14 months to turn around and just have a little brainwave and go actually just be yourself, be confident.

Speaker 2:

I think the thing that changed in me and you, mate, is that we both started actually listening to each other yeah. You and I, we've never bullshitted each other.

Speaker 4:

No.

Speaker 2:

And we always come from the place where I know what I'm going to say to you might sound manipulative blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. We always say that to each other.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2:

But we've never bullshitted each other. Yeah, that coffee a couple of months ago. We listened, yeah, and we believed it. Yeah, you know what I?

Speaker 4:

mean.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, yeah, but it's just the confidence levels they do. If you're not confident now and you're on TikTok, if you carry on six months to 12 months time, absolutely right and you'll be a different person for the better.

Speaker 2:

It will be the person that you left behind in childhood.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, don't get me wrong, there are some dickheads that appear on TikTok. You might go into there thinking you're a nice person.

Speaker 2:

They were dickhead kids as well, being a bit big headed. Yeah, they were dickheads at school.

Speaker 3:

Well, yeah, exactly yeah, but it does change some people that's the thing.

Speaker 2:

But everybody's desperate for money and we get that and a lot of people start seeing a bit of money and they start getting selfish about it. They can grab more and they forget who they are or they become their true selves, which was a big one and where they've come from.

Speaker 3:

I think that's important. You always remember where you come from and the people that have helped you out as well don't think you're bigger than anybody.

Speaker 2:

You what? One of the things that I'm going to be talking about now the road show is going to be next week. My closing speech is we're going to lean on the themes of the day and I'm going to kind of orchestrate that. I know what the themes of the day are going to be and it's going to be consistency and staying in the game and resilience and all that stuff. But we're going to have it across multiple different sort of formats and I'm going to say look, stay in the game and when you start winning, realize who it is you are.

Speaker 2:

When you found the thing that makes you win, carry on doubling down on that thing. Don't then look at shiny object syndrome somewhere else. But when you do start winning, just look forward. Don't look sideways, because some people are going to be happy for you. Some people are going to be angry with you. For what? For no reason whatsoever. Some people are going to be bitter and then some people are going to copy you, yeah, and you get so caught up with the people behind you that are copying you. You end up looking sideways or you end up looking back and you become obsessed with those people when you're on a forward path. Yeah, and I have to tell myself that a lot yeah.

Speaker 2:

Especially these last couple of weeks, and I've said it to Luke. I've showed Luke the speech. I said this is what I'm going to be talking about and he went. I need to hear that and all Because it's so true, mate. It's so true. There are people that perfect example and I'll tell you what. Going back a little bit, we're talking about quitting our job. I spoke to a guy last week who runs a brand, amazon private label seller. I taught him Amazon. He then went off and did private label, launched a brand on Amazon absolutely flying. Launched a brand on Amazon, absolutely flying. Launched it on TikTok. Spoke to him last week and I said to him close to quitting your day job now, because he's older than us and he's in some decent consultancy job.

Speaker 1:

And he went.

Speaker 2:

I don't need to. He said I work in sales. I've just signed a long-term deal. The commission is out of this world. I'm making about 400 grand a month in revenue on Amazon at the moment. So you could argue he's getting 10% to 20% of that, probably sharing with a business partner, and they're scaling up. They want half a mil per month by quarter three and they're on track. And he said I've got no interest in quitting my job. That's fine. I'm like mate, good for you, you don't have to quit your job.

Speaker 1:

You know what I mean if you're happy His kids, mate.

Speaker 2:

Good for you, you don't have to quit your job. You know what I mean if you're happy his kids are grown up and all that sort of stuff. So that's perfectly fine with him. But what I love about him is that he doesn't care about other things or other people, he's just moving on. Really inspiring stuff, mate, really inspiring.

Speaker 3:

Lost my train of thought, yeah that wasn't even a question, you just got too.

Speaker 2:

Inspired there, didn't you talking about the fact that I helped the skis to start?

Speaker 4:

on Amazon, yeah, yeah anyway, I think that'll do, mate, don't you?

Speaker 3:

I think that's a good one.

Speaker 2:

I think it is right. So quit your job or don't, it's up to you go full time on TikTok or don't or don't.

Speaker 3:

It's up to you. Be a better person or don't or don't? It's up to you.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 3:

No.

Speaker 2:

Get a job on.

Speaker 3:

CBeebies, it is yeah, yeah, it's just important Whatever you do in life, just be yourself. That's it.

Speaker 2:

That's it Right. We'll see you next week. Ash will be back.

Speaker 4:

Hopefully.

Speaker 2:

We're not going to give up. What's happened to Ash while he's been in Spain? Yeah, we'll let him tell that story. Bet he might be wearing a hat Right in the meantime. I'm Des.

Speaker 3:

I'm Chris.

Speaker 2:

Tell your friends, share the word. We're still growing. We're still only what two, three months in this podcast is going places. Take care everybody. Bye-bye, ciao.